The Way it Could Have Been
by iwouldonlygoiftherewascake
Summary: AU the war never happened. Tris plans to help train the new initiates with Four, but a change of events means she is forced to work with someone who she detests very much. Gradual pairings and story line, rated M for language and sexual content.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

One year ago, I stepped off that building into my future. And now I was living it.

My room in the Dauntless compound was small and simple. But that didn't mean I loved it any less than Christina's elaborately decorated pad, or Four's small apartment. My bed was a double (a feat that was hard to pull when Sandra at housing hated my guts all because I bought the last size six dress that one time) and it faced one of the only windows in the entire compound. The view was terrible, literally only the side of a drab, grey building but I could open it a crack and it helped me feel like I wasn't suffocating for at least a few hours at night. I had a small walk in wardrobe that was filled with mostly Christina's clothing as she ran out of space, and an even smaller bathroom that allowed you to shower and use the toilet at the same time. Everything was very practical. The only indulgence I allowed myself was the floor length mirror I religiously used every day.

I guess you could say it still felt like a guilty pleasure using a mirror when my old faction forbade it, but I loved being able to see what I looked like. I was slowly learning to recognise my face, with my long and point nose, shallow cheeks and large blue eyes. My hair, still not cut since the last time my mother did it for me cascaded down my back in blond waves and reached the top of my black shorts. My thin and wiry frame was definitely more skin than fat, although I could see slight muscle definition lacing my arms and legs. Three days a week in the Dauntless gym does that too you.

A knock at my door snapped me out of my observations and I opened it cautiously. As expected, Christina bounded in, wearing a flimsy dress and super high heels.

"Hello Christina," I sighed as she flopped down on my bed and messed up the sheets I had spent at least ten minutes arranging perfectly.

"Hey Tris. You look nice today," she said offhandedly, as though it was a default compliment. I looked down at my simple tank top, shorts and converse and shrugged.

"You look nice too. Suspiciously so. Are you seeing Will again?" I enquired, seating myself next to her on the bed.

She cast her eyes down and I felt bad for asking. Christina and Will broke up a while ago, and I hadn't seen her this excited since they were together.

I hurriedly corrected my mistake. "Okay not Will. What're you excited about?"

Christina snapped out of her depression and her face broke into a wide grin. "The new initiates are coming today."

I slapped a hand off my forehead, surprised I forget since I was supposed to be helping Four train them. "I can't believe you forgot!" Christina shoves my shoulder softly.

"Well we better go!" I grabbed her hand and we raced out of the apartment and into the Pit. Then we followed the stream of trainers to the big room with a net in the middle to capture the initiates when they jumped off the building. I can only remember too well the adrenaline pumping through my veins when I heard 'Tris Prior, first jumper.'

I spotted Four and my stomach jolted. I always turned into an incredible shy creature when Four was around. After a few intimate moments, we had agreed it would be better until after I had settled in to pursue a relationship properly. We had yet to have that conversation even though I finished initiation months ago. But he smiled freely at me, and I shyly waved back, hoping to God it wouldn't be awkward.

We were waiting around for a long time before we heard the whitle of a body slicing through air, and the net jumped a little while we all craned our necks to see who had the balls to be the first jumper. Surprisingly, it was a boy from Amity, dressed in a yellow t-shirt. His glasses were off-skew and he had curly, ginger hair that stuck up at every opportunity. Perplexed, everyone stared at him as he cowered in the middle of the large net. Out of nowhere, a large callused hand appeared beside me and pulled the boy to safety just as a Dauntless initiate thudded into the net. I followed the arm up to the face it belonged to and my stomach rolled around.

It was Peter, and he was smiling right at me.


	2. Chapter 2

I hadn't seen Peter in a while. He was a patrol worker and their work hours don't correspond with my work for the Dauntless leaders. They had to wake up early and stay out late, while I had easy going hours because when there weren't new initiates I didn't have a lot to do except running errands. I was surprised Peter had managed to swing time off to train the initiates.

He had changed a lot in our time apart. He must have gone up two sizes due to the muscle department alone and he had stubble. He was wearing his hair different too. Instead of slicked back like usual it was mussed and dangerous.

As if Peter needed any more reason to look dangerous.

"Hello Stiff." His voice had gotten deeper too, accompanied with a wry grin. No one had used that nickname in a while. I had proved just how Dauntless I was.

"Peter," I nodded, and turned to help support a quivering blond girl from Erudite from the middle of the net.

"Haven't seen you in a while. How's life?"

I wanted to punch him.

I smiled back, fleeting and sarcastic. "It's pretty boring now I'm not getting beat up all the time. I guess I'm just that sort of girl that likes being held over a violent river and almost strangled to death. It's where I get my kicks."

"You not over that yet, Stiff?"

I glared at him, and stand next to Four who was introducing the initiates to the Dauntless compound. They all looked terrified. I remembered a year ago when I was standing right where they were, hearing that after jumping off a moving train and a building you still had to prove you were good enough. Of course after the council found out about it, Dauntless were prevented from kicking any of the initiates out due to the rankings of initiation. Now it only went towards the jobs they would be offered when this was all over. A small relief, I'm sure.

After Four finished his introduction speech, they cut the group into Dauntless born and transfers. Four was of course in charge of the transfers, and I went to follow him when he began to lead them down the corridor that ended in the Pit, but an arm held me steady.

I felt disgusted as I saw Peter, once again, smiling down at me.

"Actually Stiff, you're with me." Peter started to walk off with the Dauntless born initiates trailing behind him like lost puppies. If only they knew what danger they were getting themselves into.

"What do you mean I'm with you?" I yelled at his retreating figure. "Peter, come back here!" Exasperated and ignored, I stalked after the group.

We walked for about ten minutes before we came to the weapons room. Peter was rattling off what sounded like a pre-prepared speech, gesturing at the different guns and knives and all their uses. The initiates nodded, and some of the more burly and scary looking ones appraising them eagerly. I was easily the smallest person in the room, but I was used to that. Peter wrapped up his speech and moved onto the next area. We came out in the training room, and he carried on his lecture. I wasn't really listening, still shocked that the leaders had paired me and Peter together.

Next, Peter showed the basic moves on a training dummy. I could see the initiates losing interest, and so could he.

"Hey, Tris. Why don't we show them how it's done?" Peter asked me, and his eyes held that fire that made me tremble in my skin. Little did he know I had been training hard, and I'd gotten a lot of help from Will.

I smiled sarcastically. "Yeah, sure."

We circled each other, and I had a flashback to the last time we did this. I ended up in the medical ward all night. Even more incentive to get a few hits in.

Peter came at me, and I ducked underneath his outstretch arm and landed an elbow in his stomach. His breath wheezed out a little, but it didn't really sway him. He moved a step towards me and kicked out as his legs. He fell to the floor with gasps from the crowd, and I smugly smiled to myself. I had gotten so much better at this.

I was into it now, bouncing around on my toes so I was ready to pounce, but Peter stood with his arms held up high in surrender.

He turned to the initiates and said, "And that's why you should never underestimate someone smaller, or of another gender. You guys can now make your way to the dining hall."

They all rushed out, and I didn't blame them. I was starving.

"Stiff, wait a second." Peter's business like persona was gone, and I was once again facing the stoic faced monster.

"What?" I snapped.

Peter sighed and ran a hand through his hair. I had never seen him so put out before, or lost for words. He rarely spoke, and when he did he was always composed.

"I just… I just want to put the past in the past, you know?" he asked. His face was so innocent and full of an unknown expression. But five seconds later it was gone, and so was he, pushing past me and nudging my shoulder as he went.

Suddenly I wasn't that hungry anymore.

A/N - Thank you for all the reviews and followers! And sorry for the long wait, but was just wondering what to do with the storyline. All mistakes are mine


	3. Chapter 3

Any mistakes are clearly my own I apologise.

Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, because if I did Will would never have died and Peter wouldn't be evil.

I tried to hide for the rest of the day, even after the pager that came with my job buzzed with a 444 number, meaning report to the control room. I didn't know why, but I wasn't in the mood for seeing anyone, and the idea of working with Peter made my stomach churn.

I was under my bed in the dark when Christina came to find me.

"Tris?" she called, flipping on the light switch. I held my breath and sucked in my stomach even though it would make no difference.

And then, at the worst possible time, my stomach rumbled.

Christina sighed, and I imagined her agitatedly resting a hand on her hip and rolling her eyes. "I know you're here. Come out now if you don't want this to get dirty."

I slowly edged out from under the bed, a sheepish smile on my face. "Oh hi," I greeted her, and she imitated the picture I had of her in my head.

She yanked me up by my arms and sat me down on my bed, looking like a thunderous mother finding her child with its hand stuck in the cookie jar.

"Beatrice Prior, I have been looking for you all day," she began, puffing out her chest. "And do you know who told me you were missing. _Peter._ Of all people, I had to hear my best friend was missing from the guy who not even a year ago tried to kill you? And then Four got wind of it and-"

I piped up, suddenly interested. "And what? What did Four do?"

She eyed me suspiciously. "Well he went straight to Eric, and then Eric said he would page you-"

"I must have missed it," I shrugged it off. "Anyway, what's the big deal? So I had a headache and no appetite, I'm always holed up in here."

"Well maybe if you weren't being such a vampire you would know! Someone in your group threw themselves into the chasm."

I felt the pang of grief rip through me as I thought of Al, my big, soft giant floating in the river. And then I reminded myself how he also tried to help in my murder and the feeling passed.

"When people told me it happened more than you'd like I never actually believed it," Christina said, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

I pulled her into an awkward hug.

"When's the funeral?" I asked. Funerals in the Dauntless compound were a big thing. I remember the last one, when old Maggie from the kitchens died after slipping on some oil with a knife in her hand. As a remembrance the craftsman constructed a beautiful knife with a leaf handle with her name on it and a lethal edge, and everyone gathered round it and watched it burn. It would've been quite beautiful if not for the fact most people wouldn't remember the amount they were drinking.

"Tomorrow, 10. I'll meet you at my room, ok? I'll lend you something to wear." She kissed my forehead like a child and left me to curl up and sleep.

I woke at nine, quickly showered and headed over to Christina's room on the other side of the compound still in my pyjamas. She worked in the clothing shop, her dream job no less. They had just started letting her design her own outfits. One major benefit? She got a lot of store credit, hence the massive wardrobe.

I knocked softly on her door and let myself in. Christina was just putting the finishing touched on her eyebrows when she looked up.

"God, how do you always look so natural in the mornings?" she pondered before seating me firmly on her vanity seat and getting to work enhancing my features.

I was used to this by now. It usually took her ten minutes to apply some eyeliner, lip-gloss and pick a suitable outfit. I was usually left to study her room. Which was, in an understatement, gorgeous.

Taking complete adventure of her position at work, Christina had stuck designs all over her walls, as well as pictures from magazines and even a few dresses she never wore. Her room was big enough for her to be able to put up a partition to separate bedroom and wardrobe, which was handy because without it she would be sleeping on a pile of clothes. In her wardrobe, in which I gracefully sat at her floor length mirror on a stool, her collection was very impressive. Racks and racks of clothes cut up the room making it impossible to move from the door to the back wall unless you knew the route off by heart. The back wall was completely covered with shoes, majoritively heels, and I wondered how Christina actually afforded it all. The room was mostly black, but you could see hints of rebellious pinks and blues, even a flowery pair of heels.

After Christina was finished pinning my hair into a sombre up do similar to her own she disappeared into her clothing maze, emerging five minutes later with two plain black dress, one strapless and one long sleeved and lacy, and stiletto heels and plain pumps. I knew which ones were destined for me straight away, so I pulled on the long sleeved dress and the pumps. Even though Christina was so much taller than me the dress still hit high on my thigh. I could only imagine how short it must be on her. Then I saw her dress and no more imagining was needed, it only just brushed the bottom of her bum. She was so inappropriate, but I loved her nonetheless.

We made our way down the pit, me walking on the outside in case Christina tripped in her killer heels. Mostly everyone was already there, with glasses of whiskey or scotch mostly. The Dauntless didn't drink lightly or sparingly.

We walked over to the drinks table, and Christina quickly poured two shots of a dark brown liquid. She toasted me, downed hers and slid mine over. I shook my head but she insisted. Christina was a heavy drinker, always coming into my room at three in the morning sticking of puke and the Chasm. I didn't see the appeal, but the way she was staring at me, and how Peter was acting and how awkward things were with Four and with another suicide looming over me I forgot about my reasoning and downed the shot.

It burned on the way down but I was proud I didn't grimace like most people were. Christina looked impressed, her eyebrows hiking up into her newly cut full fringe. She poured herself a larger drink and excused herself. I watched as she cut her way through the crowd, stopping to talk to a few people. Standing alone I did the only thing I could. Drink.

I settled on an amber whiskey and sat in a nearby chair, the bottle within reach if need be.

I lost track of time, so when I saw a shadow hovering above me I was so drunk that I was seeing blurry visions of two people, even though I couldn't identify them.

"Tris, are you ok?" I heard a gruff voice, and instead of answering I just downed my glass and poured another one.

I felt the bottle disappear from my hand and I groaned in protest.

"No more for you, I think," the voice said. I was so close to grasping a name but I just couldn't.

"Meanie," I sighed, and slumped forwards so my entire body slid of the chair. Before I hit the floor, I was scooped up and carried off. Where to, I didn't find out because my will to hold onto consciousness disappeared and I fell into oblivion.


End file.
